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29 September, 2012

Sick of constantly
hassling people to clean up files on the server? Want more compute resource at
peak times but don’t want the added overhead? Combine your SharePoint with
Windows Azure and these problems, and more besides, are solved. Azure can
handle your document storage, as well as holding huge amounts of SharePoint
application data, all within the cloud.

Azure’s dynamically
scalable hosting potential can bring practical service-based scenarios into
SharePoint. And it’s not just added space that Azure offers; it’s also ease of
use. You can create customer-facing interfaces in Azure, that can be easily
integrated into SharePoint’s architecture, and your developers can continue to
leverage their skills in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft .NET, Java or other
development environments.

Azure’s simple
pay-as-you-go pricing model also streamlines budgeting and removes the need for
capital expenditure on upfront purchases, provisioning and management of
additional server infrastructure. In short, Windows Azure is about simplicity:
creating an easier life for you, while improving the performance of your
current SharePoint system.

An
overview of Windows Azure

Azure is already
improving businesses through the following key features and benefits:

Simplified operations and
maintenance of applications – by providing on-demand scalability of both
compute and storage.

Reduced need for up-front
purchases – with a pay-as-you-go pricing model, budgeted from Opex, not
Capex.

Increased compatibility –
providing an open environment that supports multiple internet protocols,
including HTTP/HTTPS, REST, SOAP, and XML. This enables your developers to
easily create cloud-based applications in their preferred scripting
language without further training.

Point8020 - Learning content provider Point8020
uses Windows Azure to enhance the delivery of expert-led instructional videos
that help businesses make the most of SharePoint.Read more

“Our
customers already have an investment in Microsoft technology. I’m sure they
will be happy knowing our product is based on Windows Azure. It gives them
confidence that the services will be reliable, available, and offer great
performance.”

Martin
Harwar, Chief Executive Officer, Point8020

Hitachi - Global IT consulting firm Hitachi
Consulting is streamlining reporting for U.S. Government contractors with their
Program Management Framework combining the Microsoft SQL Azure cloud database
service with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Windows
Azure Mobile Services makes it incredibly easy to connect a scalable cloud
backend to your client and mobile applications. It allows you to easily
store structured data in the cloud that can span both devices and users,
integrate it with user authentication, as well as send out updates to clients
via push notifications.

Today’s
release enables you to add these capabilities to any Windows 8 app in literally
minutes, and provides a super productive way for you to quickly build out your
app ideas. We’ll also be adding support to enable these same scenarios
for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android devices soon.

Read
this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build
(in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that is cloud
enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services. Or watch this video
of me showing how to do it step by step.

Getting Started

If
you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign up for a
no-obligation Free Trial. Once you are signed-up, click the
“preview features” section under the “account” tab of the www.windowsazure.com
website and enable your account to support the “Mobile Services”
preview. Instructions on how to enable this can be found here.

Once
you have the mobile services preview enabled, log into the Windows Azure
Portal, click the “New” button and choose the new “Mobile Services” icon to
create your first mobile backend. Once created, you’ll see a quick-start
page like below with instructions on how to connect your mobile service to an
existing Windows 8 client app you have already started working on, or how to
create and connect a brand-new Windows 8 client app with it:

Read
this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build
(in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that stores
data in Windows Azure.

Storing Data in the Cloud

Storing
data in the cloud with Windows Azure Mobile Services is incredibly easy.
When you create a Windows Azure Mobile Service, we automatically associate it
with a SQL Database inside Windows Azure. The Windows Azure Mobile
Service backend then provides built-in support for enabling remote apps to
securely store and retrieve data from it (using secure REST end-points
utilizing a JSON-based ODATA format) – without you having to write or deploy
any custom server code. Built-in management support is provided within
the Windows Azure portal for creating new tables, browsing data, setting
indexes, and controlling access permissions.

This
makes it incredibly easy to connect client applications to the cloud, and
enables client developers who don’t have a server-code background to be
productive from the very beginning. They can instead focus on building
the client app experience, and leverage Windows Azure Mobile Services to
provide the cloud backend services they require.

Below
is an example of client-side
Windows 8 C#/XAML code that could be used to query data from a Windows Azure
Mobile Service. Client-side C# developers can write queries like this
using LINQ and strongly typed POCO objects, which are then translated into HTTP
REST queries that run against a Windows Azure Mobile Service.
Developers don’t have to write or deploy any custom server-side code in order
to enable client-side code below to execute and asynchronously populate their
client UI:

Because
Mobile Services is part of Windows Azure, developers can later choose to
augment or extend their initial solution and add custom server functionality
and more advanced logic if they want. This provides maximum flexibility,
and enables developers to grow and extend their solutions to meet any needs.

User Authentication and Push Notifications

Windows
Azure Mobile Services also make it incredibly easy to integrate user
authentication/authorization and push notifications within your
applications. You can use these capabilities to enable authentication and
fine grain access control permissions to the data you store in the cloud, as
well as to trigger push notifications to users/devices when the data
changes. Windows Azure Mobile Services supports the concept of “server
scripts” (small chunks of server-side script that executes in response to
actions) that make it really easy to enable these scenarios.

Below
are some tutorials that walkthrough common authentication/authorization/push
scenarios you can do with Windows Azure Mobile Services and Windows 8 apps:

Manage and Monitor your Mobile Service

Just
like with every other service in Windows Azure, you can monitor usage and
metrics of your mobile service backend using the “Dashboard” tab within the
Windows Azure Portal.

The
dashboard tab provides a built-in monitoring view of the API calls, Bandwidth,
and server CPU cycles of your Windows Azure Mobile Service. You can
also use the “Logs” tab within the portal to review error messages. This
makes it easy to monitor and track how your application is doing.

Scale Up as Your Business Grows

Windows
Azure Mobile Services now allows every Windows Azure customer to create and run
up to 10 Mobile Services in a free, shared/multi-tenant hosting environment
(where your mobile backend will be one of multiple apps running on a shared set
of server resources). This provides an easy way to get started on
projects at no cost beyond the database you connect your Windows Azure Mobile
Service to (note: each Windows Azure free trial account also includes a 1GB SQL
Database that you can use with any number of apps or Windows Azure Mobile
Services).

If
your client application becomes popular, you can click the “Scale” tab of your
Mobile Service and switch from “Shared” to “Reserved” mode. Doing so
allows you to isolate your apps so that you are the only customer within a
virtual machine. This allows you to elastically scale the amount of
resources your apps use – allowing you to scale-up (or scale-down) your
capacity as your traffic grows:

With
Windows Azure you pay for compute capacity on a per-hour basis – which allows
you to scale up and down your resources to match only what you need. This
enables a super flexible model that is ideal for new mobile app scenarios, as
well as startups who are just getting going.

Summary

I’ve
only scratched the surface of what you can do with Windows Azure Mobile
Services – there are a lot more features to explore.

With
Windows Azure Mobile Services you’ll be able to build mobile app experiences
faster than ever, and enable even better user experiences – by connecting your
client apps to the cloud.

This is a SharePoint class
for the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers who insist on
saying, “Enough with .NET! Enough with all those third party web parts! I am a
SharePoint Hacker and I can do it myself using nothing but a web browser and a
text editor!”

Instructor Dustin Miller announces a new course based on
his ten plus years of experience poking, prodding, hacking and manipulating
SharePoint. This course is designed for client-side web developers; SharePoint
hackers and tweakers; and .NET developers who’ve had enough of the labor and
overhead of writing and deploying custom web parts.

Day 1

Reintroducing
the Data View Web Part (DVWP)

What is this wondrous thing
called the Data View Web Part, and why should you care? It’s only the best tool
in your SharePoint toolbox. The Swiss Army Knife of web parts. It has been
around since WSS 2.0, and since SharePoint 2010 has been the basis for every
list view on your pages. Learn what it does, how it works and how to use it
with any version of SharePoint.

XSL: More
important than .NET

XSL, or Extensible
Stylesheet Language, remains a mysterious concept for many web developers.
There’s no need to fear it, and there’s no good reason to ignore it in favor of
.NET for client-side presentation. Plan to spend a full day on this topic – and
plan to be an expert on XSL by the end of it.

Day 2

Any
markup, any time

Have you ever wanted to
create your own HTML markup from a SharePoint list? Maybe because that cool
jQuery plugin you found for an animated content slider requires specific elements
in your markup?

On the second day, you’ll
learn how to truly bend SharePoint list views to your will. Through a series of
“bet you can’t do this” challenges, you’ll see how any client-side markup
can be created from your SharePoint list data. This is need-to-know information
— that is: you need to know it. You’ll learn and write the XSL necessary to
create the following types of markup from your SharePoint list data:

HTML5

VML (Vector
Markup Language)

SVG (Scalable
Vector Graphics)

JavaScript

Plain text

Data View
hacks

There are a lot of
handy-dandy tricks to using Data View Web Parts on your SharePoint sites:
rolling up list content; embedding custom views in your master page; creating a
Data View Web Part ONLY page; re-using and packaging. You will do all this. And
more.

SharePoint
& JavaScript for hackers

Get a crash course in the
SharePoint ECMAScript (JavaScript) Client Object Model introduced in SharePoint
2010. From there, a dive into jQuery-free JavaScript hacking. By the end of the
day, you will feel like a SharePoint Client Script Ninja, and there’s a good
chance you will stop using third party JavaScript libraries on your SharePoint
sites. But if you do want to embrace the goodness of jQuery, the next day will
appeal to you.

Day 4

Custom
forms

Take everything you’ve
learned in the first three days. Bask in it. Then see how to apply all of it — all of it — to
SharePoint list forms. Think of the possibilities! Too many fields on your list
form? Turn it into a tabbed list form. Want to add your own autocomplete or
external lookup? Let your geek flag fly – I’ll show you how to do pretty much
anything you want with your list forms.

jQuery

But wait: There’s more! You
will write the code to enhance your SharePoint views and forms with jQuery and
jQuery UI. Basically everything covered in our jQuery workshop, without the
introduction to scripting fundamentals, and compressed into a few hours. Not
for the faint of heart!

Ongoing:
Post-graduation community

When you finish this class,
you will need to order new business cards. Your new title? Pick one:

SharePoint
Hacker

SharePoint
Lion Tamer

SharePoint
SuperGeek

SharePoint
Nerd Extraordinaire

Once you order those
amended business cards, come back to the exclusive SharePoint SuperGeek Forum
and continue to learn. Once a month, you’ll receive a new SharePoint SuperGeek
Challenge. Solve it, and earn a virtual badge — like an achievement in those
games you’re embarrassed to admit you play — that you can show off to your other,
less geeky friends.

Taunt those .NET developers
who keep writing custom user controls just to make a custom navigation web part
with your SharePoint hacking prowess. You’ll be proud to share these
achievements with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

And then, come back for
more. Because it won’t stop. Instructor Dustin Miller will personally help you sharpen
your SharePoint hacking skills every month. No charge.

What you
need to attend this class

For you:

A solid
foundation in HTML and CSS is highly recommended; JavaScript and XSL
experience is a plus

A basic
understanding of the SharePoint framework

This course is
designed for experienced web developers

For your
computer:

SharePoint
Designer (required)

What you
will receive from this class

Full color
student reference guides and diagrams with post-class revisions and
updates

Access to
recordings of all classroom sessions!

Sample code
and components. And we mean A LOT of code.

Experience
it:
Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2012 Online

Cost
& Registration Info:

Registration is
$1,295/seat

50% discount for
groups of five or more

Registration
closes at 12:00PM Central October 26th

Daily schedule:

Each day
is broken up into two sessions. The first session is three hours, followed by a
two-hour break, and then class commences for another three hours.

SharePoint is a powerful and highly productive asset,
but many first time users fail to maximize it's true potential.

If your organization is getting started with SharePoint
services, then this webcast is for you. We'll discuss the best ways to get
started with SharePoint services and achieve fast adoption and success within
your organization.

Overview of SharePoint 2013 analytics features and implementationVideo | Presentation

Module 4: SharePoint 2013 server farms and site architecture planning

Plan for server farms and sites in SharePoint 2013. Learn about planning for the distributed cache, changes in alternate access mappings and self-service site creation, new features in themes, and new ways to share sites, lists, and libraries.

Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.

Social is one of the largest investments in SharePoint 2013. New features and capabilities provide a better and more comprehensive story for social computing in SharePoint 2013. Get a walkthrough of social features in SharePoint 2013.

Get an overview of key changes and improvements in enterprise content management (ECM) and web content management (WCM) in SharePoint 2013. Learn about new capabilities from eDiscover improvements to major new capabilities for WCM-driven sites.

Learn about the new customization capabilities in SharePoint 2013 and what that means from IT pro perspective. Learn about required infrastructural changes for new customization capabilities and setting up team development environments.

Get an overview of changes in claims-based authentication in SharePoint 2013. Learn about new support for OAuth and how it's used in SharePoint 2013. Also see how OAuth is used in Server to Server (S2S) authentication scenarios.

Get details about new enhancements for Project Server 2013 for IT pros, including both on-premises and online offerings. Learn about changes in the architecture, deployment and upgrade options, and administration and operations.